While I have been back to "The Land of Eternal Spring" a few times since then... it has been since February of last year that Cherie and I have been in Guatemala together.
We are really looking forward to reuniting with Leah, Tita, the teachers, the kids... and Jocelyn and Suzy (the two girls in the photos above that we have been sponsoring for the past five years).
It was shortly after that trip that we followed our hearts to devote our lives to the work we felt God calling us to do there. A month after returning Lemonade International began and we moved into a new phase of our lives that has been somewhat of a whirlwind since then.
The book, The Barbarian Way, by Erwin McManus has been instrumental in encouraging us to step out into the unknown and to take risks (that don't necessarily make sense) and to give our lives in partnership with our Guatemalan friends to serve the people of La Limonada - an urban slum community of between 60,000 - 100,000 people.
Here are some quotes from that book:
"True religion always moves us to serve others and to give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom."
"A world without God cannot wait for us to choose the safe path. If we wait for someone else to take the risk, we risk that no one will ever act and that nothing will ever be accomplished."
"If you chose to make the insane decision to live your life for the sake of others, if you chose to follow the One whose barbarian path led him to the brutality of the cross, and if you embrace his invitation to take up your own cross and follow him, then it has begun. If you dare to allow God to unlock your primal spirit, He will unleash the raw and untamed faith within. Then you will know you have chosen the barbarian way out of civilization."
It still seems crazy to me at times that this is the path our lives have taken, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm thankful that God has directed our lives this way... and thankful that I get to serve Him together with my wife and our friends.
More to come from this blog and from the Lemonade Int'l Blog in the coming days...
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